Najib’s Jekyll and Hyde playbook at work again - on the day Najib presented the sweet face of reason to Parliament to let it decide on the twin mega scandals, his Ministers were already playing hard ball refusing to respond to questions about the twin mega scandals

It was classic Najib from his Jekyll and Hyde playbook in Parliament yesterday.

On the same day that the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak presented the sweet face of reason to Parliament saying to let it decide on his twin mega scandals, his Ministers were already playing hard ball refusing to respond to questions about the twin mega scandals.

During question time yesterday morning, Najib said he will let the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) decide on his twin mega scandals – the RM55 billion 1MDB and the RM2.6 billion “donation” scandals – but shortly after, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said announced that the Federal Government will not respond to any parliamentary question on the RM2.6 billion deposited in Najib’s personal banking accounts, invoking the sub judice rule on the ground that it was now the subject of a judicial review application by the Malaysian Bar.

In one fell swoop, Azalina had nullified and negatived the assurance Najib had implicitly given to Parliament earlier the same day, that the Prime Minister had nothing whatsoever to hide in the twin mega scandals, that the attacks against him on the twin mega scandals were “orchestrated” and that he would let the PAC and Parliament decide on both issues to uphold the “process of accountability”.

How can PAC and Parliament decide on Najib’s twin mega scandals to uphold the “process of accountability” when he and his Ministers refused from yesterday to respond, whether during Question Time or in the Ministerial winding-up debate next week, to issues raised by MPs on the twin mega scandals?

In fact, this refusal by the Ministerial front-bench to respond to questions on Najib’s twin mega scandals started yesterday in written answers to MPs’ questions on the RM2.6 billion scandal as revealed by the PKR MP for Alor Setar, Gooi Hsiao Leung in Parliament – the same day Najib had turned up to promise full co-operation with Parliament on the twin mega scandals!

Will the PAC under the “cari makan” Chairman Datuk Hasan Arifin also use the sub judice rule as an excuse to send the Auditor-General’s final audit report on the RM55 billion 1MDB scandal into deep freeze and delay the PAC report on the 1MDB scandal indefinitely until dissolution of Parliament?

If Najib is sincere in wanting Parliament and PAC to decide on his twin mega scandals, then let him announce that he would appear before the PAC as a witness and that he is prepared to answer all questions posed to him at the PAC investigations – as he is not only the Prime Minister, the Finance Minister but under Clause 117 the 1MDB Memorandum and Articles of Association (M&A), the final approving authority for all 1MDB deals, investments and transactions.

Furthermore, let the Prime Minister give an assurance that there would be no untoward delay in the presentation of the PAC report on the 1MDB to the Dewan Rakyat, and that it would be tabled before the end of the current Parliament meeting on April 7.